Mortimer Menpes
Mortimer Menpes | |
---|---|
![]() Self-portrait, c. 1916 | |
Born | 22 February 1855 Port Adelaide, South Australia |
Died | 1 April 1938 Pangbourne, Berkshire, England | (aged 83)
Occupation | Artist |
Spouse | Rosa Mary Grosse (m. 1875) |
Mortimer Luddington Menpes (22 February 1855 – 1 April 1938) was an Australian-born painter, author, printmaker and illustrator.
Born and raised in
A "born raconteur", Menpes was a fixture of British high society, and he became renowned for hosting soirées at his Japanese-style home on Cadogan Gardens, attended by a wide circle of artists, writers, socialites and other prominent figures. He was the godfather of Oscar Wilde's son Vyvyan.
Life
Menpes was born in
Mortimer was educated at
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Whistler_seated_with_Mortimer_Menpes_standing._Whistler_wears_the_much_talked_about_coat_wth_cape_and_curly_brimmed_hat_LCCN2003688440.jpg/170px-Whistler_seated_with_Mortimer_Menpes_standing._Whistler_wears_the_much_talked_about_coat_wth_cape_and_curly_brimmed_hat_LCCN2003688440.jpg)
Menpes set off on a sketching tour of Brittany in 1880, during which he met James McNeill Whistler. He became Whistler's pupil, and at one stage shared a flat with him at Cheyne Walk on the Chelsea Embankment in London. He was taught etching by Whistler, whose influence, together with that of Japanese design, is evident in his later work. Menpes became a major figure in the etching revival, producing more than seven hundred different etchings and drypoints, which he usually printed himself. As early as 1880, a selection of ten of his drypoint portraits, donated to the British Museum by Charles A. Howell, brought him critical acclaim.[5] [6]
In 1886 he agreed to stand as the godfather to his friend Oscar Wilde's son Vyvyan, after John Ruskin had declined due to his age.[7][8]
A visit to Japan in 1887 led to his first one-man exhibition at Dowdeswell's Gallery
In 1900, after the outbreak of the
For the last 30 years of his life, Menpes retired to Iris Court,
Menpes became a member of the
An exhibition of his work, The World of Mortimer Menpes: Painter, Etcher, Raconteur opened at the Art Gallery of South Australia on 14 June 2014.[14]
Family
Menpes, his parents and three of his siblings left for England in February 1875,
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Mortimer_Menpes01.jpg/220px-Mortimer_Menpes01.jpg)
On 26 April 1875 at All Soul's Church, Langham Place, London, Menpes married fellow Australian Rosa Mary Grosse (1857 – 23 August 1936).[16] Miss Grosse was a fellow-passenger on the RMSS Nubia that took the Menpes family to London in 1875.[17] She was an orphan: her mother Rosetta Matilda Grosse died in 1866 and her father James Grosse, a fellow member with James Menpes of the Port Adelaide Corporation and whose Will was executed by Menpes,[18] in 1874. They had a son, Mortimer James (b. 1879) and two daughters, Rose Maud Goodwin and Dorothy Whistler.[19]
Menpes's cousin Thomas Smith was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1870s, winning three Port Adelaide Football Club Best and Fairest awards in succession.[20]
Work
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Mortimer_Menpes02a.jpg/220px-Mortimer_Menpes02a.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Mortimer_Menpes04.jpg/220px-Mortimer_Menpes04.jpg)
Menpes painted in
He developed a special form of colour etching and exhibited coloured etchings at Dowdeswell's Gallery in London in late 1911/early 1912. He was also a pioneer, with Carl Hentschel (1864–1926), in the development of techniques to reproduce coloured art works in book form. His book, 'War Impressions', published in April 1901 by A. & C. Black, was the first book to faithfully reproduce art works in color, based on watercolors done by Menpes in South Africa, and therefore was the forerunner of all illustrated art books. Menpes also founded the Menpes Press of London and Watford to produce colored illustrated books using the Hentschel Colourtype Process, which was a photographic process that involved taking three photographs of an art work using three different color filters (red, blue and yellow) and then combining them in the printing process. Menpes was a great traveler and undertook artistic journeys to Japan, China, Burma, Kashmir, Mexico, India, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt as well as within Europe to Brittany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and other places, often returning from such travels to mount exhibitions of his works. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Menpes also produced the "Menpes Series of Great Masters", which were copies by him of works by Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Van Dyck and others which were reproduced in printed form for sale. In 1911, Menpes donated 38 of his copies in oil to the Australian Government; these works have subsequently become part of the Pictures Collection at the National Library of Australia.[5]
Some pencil sketches by Menpes were published in the Adelaide Observer in 1903. They are portraits of Sir Charles Todd, Sir James Fergusson and the Rev. Canon Green;[22] Dean Marryat, Sir Anthony Musgrave and Dr. Schomburgk;[23] Charles Mann, Sir Arthur Blyth and William Townsend[24] Sir William Milne, Thomas Playford and George Stevenson, Jun.[25]
Bibliography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/At_Rochefort-en-Terre.jpg/220px-At_Rochefort-en-Terre.jpg)
- Illustrated by Menpes
- Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: a record in colour (A & C Black, 1901).
- Menpes, Dorothy. The Durbar (London: A & C Black, 1903)
- Menpes, Dorothy. World's Children (London: A & C Black, 1903).
- Menpes, Dorothy. Venice (A & C Black, 1904).
- Loti, Pierre. Madame Prune (A & C Black, 1905).
- Menpes, Dorothy. Brittany (A & C Black, 1905).
- Steel, Flora Annie. India(A & C Black, 1905).
- Mitton, G. E. The Thames (A & C Black, 1906).
- Blake, Sir H. A. China (A & C Black, 1909)
- Menpes, Dorothy. Paris (A & C Black, 1909).
- Finnemore, John. India (A & C Black, 1910).
- Mitton, G. E. The people of India (A & C Black, 1910).
- Blathwayt, R. Through life and round the world, being the story of my life (E.P. Dutton, 1917).
- Finnemore, John. Home life in India (A & C Black, 1917)
- Home, Gordon. France (A & C Black, 1918).
- Written and illustrated by Menpes
- War impressions, being a record in colour; (A & C Black, 1901).
- Whistler as I knew him (A & C Black, 1904)
- Rembrandt (A & C Black, 1905)
- Henry Irving (A & C Black, 1906).
- Gainsborough (A & C Black, 1909).
- Lord Kitchener (A & C Black, 1915).
- Lord Roberts (A & C Black, 1915).
References
- ISBN 9780980713008
- ^ George E. Loyau Notable South Australians (1885) p.34, mis-spelled "Mempes", a common error.
- ^ "The Late Mr. Barrow". South Australian Register. Adelaide. 12 November 1874. p. 4. Retrieved 4 February 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Paintings by an Old Portonian". South Australian Register. Vol. XLIX, no. 11, 808. 17 September 1884. p. 4. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ a b Tim Fisher. "The Great Masters, by Mortimer Menpes" (PDF). Retrieved 5 July 2011 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Portrait of Charles A. Howell". British Museum. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
- ^ Norman Page, ed., An Oscar Wilde Chronology, p. 33. Retrieved 29 June 2020
- ^ Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde, p. 251
- ^ Opened by Walter Dowdeswell in New Bond Street, London from 1878–1912.
- ^ "Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea". British History Online. Victoria County History, 2004. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Rosa Mary Menpes, 1855–1936". University of Glasgow. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
- ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1080730)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
- ^ See Gooch, John. The Boer War: direction, experience, and image (Routledge, 2000) p. 233, for Menpes's views on military censorship.
- ^ a b The Mortimer Menpes story — forgotten work of SA's first star artist found The Advertiser, 29 May 2014. Accessed 30 May 2014.
- The Illustrated Adelaide News. Vol. I, no. 4. 1 March 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia. Only Mortimer and two sisters Emma (born 1857) and Louisa (born 1859) listed here. Brother James Henry (born 1944) is missing.
- Evening Journal. Vol. VII, no. 1969. Adelaide. 24 June 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- The Illustrated Adelaide News. Vol. I, no. 4. 1 March 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- Evening Journal. Vol. VII, no. 1916. Adelaide. 21 April 1875. p. 2. Retrieved 5 September 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Dorothy, who was Whistler's godchild, married a Mr. Flower and died in Minehead in July 1973 aged 89.
- The Express and Telegraph. Vol. XLVII, no. 13, 888. South Australia. 17 December 1909. p. 1. Retrieved 18 August 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
- ISBN 9780980713008
- Adelaide Observer. 17 October 1903. p. 21. Retrieved 25 December 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
- Adelaide Observer. 24 October 1903. p. 22. Retrieved 25 December 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
- Adelaide Observer. 31 October 1903. p. 22. Retrieved 25 December 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
- Adelaide Observer. 14 November 1903. p. 22. Retrieved 25 December 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- "The Great Masters, by Mortimer Menpes". Retrieved 4 July 2011 – via National Library of Australia.
- Tim Fisher. "The Great Masters, by Mortimer Menpes" (PDF). Retrieved 5 July 2011 – via National Library of Australia.
- Artcyclopedia
- Menpes Donations National Library of Australia
- ‘Menpes, Mortimer Luddington (1855–1938)’, (by Michael Parkin. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 – accessed 2 January 2008)
- The World of Mortimer Menpes at the Art Gallery of South Australia Radio National – Books and Arts Daily (4 September 2014)
- Works by Mortimer Menpes at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Mortimer Menpes at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about Mortimer Menpes at Internet Archive
- Works by Dorothy Menpes at Project Gutenberg